'Show trials' to axe MPs disloyal to Blair

[T_i_B]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/03/02/nlab02.xml&sSheet=/portal/2004/03/02/ixportaltop.html

Labour's high command is planning "show trials" for its most disloyal MPs which could lead to their deselection before the next election unless they pledge loyalty to Tony Blair.

The extraordinary attempt to stamp discipline on the mutinous Westminster party is being championed by Hilary Armstrong, the Chief Whip. She wants at least six of the most persistent rebels to be dropped as candidates by the ruling National Executive Committee unless they agree to mend their ways.

A Labour minister said last night that Miss Armstrong was ready to order a list of habitual rebels to appear before the NEC in the summer as part of a crackdown on "serial disloyalty".

Although most Labour MPs have already been reselected by local parties, the NEC must approve all of them as candidates before the election.

[RFKHumphreyObama]

1. A party that does not tolerate dissent or criticism

Becomes out of touch with the electorate too rapidly.

Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely

It sounds like Blair could eventually go the way of Thatcher -he may become too aloof and isolated from his own party to measure the extent of disillusionment with his autocratic leadership style.

[Briar]

10. He already is out of touch

...messianically aloof and self righteously convinced that he is right while everyone else is wrong. He has absolutely no idea how angry millions of ordinary people are about his constant flouting of international law and hand in glove complicity with Bush.

[truthspeaker]

2. The thing is, if they stop their rebellious ways

their constituents will vote them out for being Blair-toadies (poodles of the Poodle). So they're in a no-win situtation.

It would be a lot less trouble just to deselect Blair. Let him run as the Tory he is.

[I AM SPARTACUS]

3. I move for a real trial against Poodle...

...does anyone second that motion???

[Zhade]

4. I DO!

This is bullshit Gestapo tactics!

What I find interesting is that this is from one of Hollinger's right-wing rags. Are they endorsing this shit?

[JCMach1]

5. Switch to LD and tell Tony

UP YOURS!

[dudeness]

6. 143 voted against Blair

in the house of commons debate about invading iraq..the resistance to blair hegemony is vast and widespread..he is finished..

[T_i_B]

7. That was one vote

They are trying to get rid of those who have voted no to Blair lots of times. The issue they cite is the recent vote to stopimmigrants welfare payments if they do not agree to be repatriated but there is also matters such as top-up fees, foundation hospitals, civil-liberty crackdowns etc which all get a few people opposing.

This goes deeper than Iraq and it shows how far from its roots and from free thinking "new" labour has become.

[Loonman]

8. Tony, the fake liberal

Well, the Labour Party is now totally irrelevent.

[dusty64]

9. Kinda like our

show "commissions" here. I can't believe they are all getting away with this crap.

[The Zanti Regent]

11. Well, Phony Tony has now morphed into Stalin

...are thse folks gonna face a firing squad, too?????

[ithacan]

12. just doing what the GOP is doing here...

threatening any moderate republican who dares to disobey the GOP commissars in the House and Senate...

Same game plan: Purges, enforced loyalty regardless of the merits and legality and ethics of the legislation

[Screaming Lord Byron]

13. Let me guess who heads the list. George Galloway?

[Kipper58]

14. No - they already got rid of him this way

his was the first of the "show trials"

http://tinyurl.com/2odsv

[Screaming Lord Byron]

15. Yeah, I'd forgotten about that. Thanks.

[T_i_B]

16. More on Ms Armstrong's hissy fit

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/03/03/nlab03.xml&sSheet=/portal/2004/03/03/ixportal.html

Miss Armstrong - furious at mass rebellions over top-up fees, foundation hospitals and curbs on asylum seekers - wanted rebels to know they could be deselected by the party's ruling National Executive Committee unless they pledged loyalty to Tony Blair.

She advised at least one well placed minister to "put it about" - among MPs and Westminster journalists - that hard-core rebels who voted against the Government repeatedly would be prevented from standing unless they mended their ways.

But yesterday she was forced to renounce her plan as party officials and MPs reacted furiously. They said it would create Left-wing martyrs at a time when Mr Blair faced the most sustained criticism since he became leader almost 10 years ago.

Miss Armstrong's office did not deny that someone in authority who had regular contact with her might have briefed the press about her thinking.